FREE SEEDS and PLANTS -- GARDENING and HARVESTING IN A TIME OF DROUGHT - GLEANERS

There are so many people here applying for money to let their grass lawns die and instead plant drought tolerant plants, along with putting down gravel, stone, and wood chips, in order to save water, that our Water and Electric companies have closed the list for lack of enough essential funding.

Some people are still allowing some or all of their properties to go unwatered, thinking that if God intends there to be rain it will rain and save what plant (and animal?  and human?) life He intends to let live, others are praying for rain as a kind of Mass-Mind-Metaphysical experiment (and we keep thinking pray for just an inch or so at a time so that we don't have landslides, house slides, and road slides!).  When a sprinkler extends over the sidewalk and into the street and a pond forms, we think what waste, but we also see that the birds, especially crows, are landing and making use of it as if it were a pond.

While we have cut our shower time and are flushing not as often, we are still watering our small flower and herb garden, much of which exists because of FREE SEEDS, every other day.

Seems every time we go to a mini convention about LIVING GREEN, be it about drought tolerant gardens or solar panels, or whatever, some booth is giving out packages of free seeds.  Some of these seeds are from NATIVE PLANTS, and we're having some success with those.

It's not just that the blooming plant is a reward, it's that our little garden has been found by bees, hummingbirds, crickets, grasshoppers, and various caterpillars (which we hope will become butterflies) that are dining out on our plants, probably because they are desperate.  Other yards have been more lush in the recent past, and are now dead or dying.

The other day, one of our neighbors decided to uproot his decorative bulbs, because he is going to plant some version of a Victory Garden.  While he contemplates what vegetables will love his naturally sandy soil, we wonder if his water bill will make planting one's own vegetables an act of reason.

Here in California the lack of water resources is being blamed on two crops - almonds and medical marijuana.  But citrus trees have always taken a lot of water to grow and result in fruit and most yards have one.  Many yards have one grapefruit, one lemon, one lime, a cumquat, an avocado, and some have olives or apricots.   These trees were planted back in the day when people from colder climates moved to California and imagined having their own orchard, never having to buy from a store again.

AND NOW A LOT OF THESE YARDS GO NEGLECTED, so a volunteer harvester group is willing to come and take away the fruit to food banks!  A wonderful idea, wherever you are, so that food (and water) do not go to waste.

VILLAGE HARVEST ORG  is one such organization.

FREE PLANT NET is another organization that intends to spread plant life around FREE.